Prior to the present invention there has been no method which when repeated continually will produce either triazones and/or a high concentration thereof reliably and/or consistently. Also, by prior methods of making fertilizers by somewhat similar or related method(s), the resulting product or mixture of products exhibit low or poor stability, decomposing and/or converting to crystalline compounds or products that precipitate-out thereby destroying their utility for use as liquid fertilizers, solid fertilizer of the triazone or related types of insoluble (in water) nature not being capable to release nitrogen to the roots sufficiently rapidly as to be economically or commercially feasible nor practical.
Moreover, it has been found that by current technology, it is impossible to separate individual triazone compounds from mixtures thereof in water-containing reaction product mixtures thereof, and until procedures utilized by the present inventor, it has heretofore not been readily possible to ascertain exact structure(s) and formula(s) of aqueous reaction products of process(es) related to or somewhat similar to the present method. Likewise until research by the present inventor, it heretofore had not been recognized nor known what factors and/or constituents of a reaction product contribute to major instability of the water-solubility thereof, nor what factor(s) in a method of production thereof control stability and/or yield of the final product(s) thereof such as in the present inventive process resulting in high concentration of high solubility and stable products of principally triazone compound(s) of the present invention present as a water-soluble mixture.
While there is no certainty that somewhat similar or related processes have resulted in the production of any triazone products as a part of the product-mixture in water solution, nor that--if any were so produced--that the amount of triazone therein was present in any appreciable nor significant amount, nor for how long such would be present prior to decomposition thereof or prior to the overall-mixture (reaction product) becoming worthless in-so-far-as utility for liquid fertilizer because of crystallization and precipitation of constituents thereof, the closest superficially related method or process to that of the present invention appears to be the Justice et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,462,256 issued on Aug. 19, 1969, which is directed to and claims a process utilizing different process parameters and different mole ratio-parameters for reactants, failing to recognize the presence (if any) of the triazone(s) of the present invention and the importance thereof as a liquid fertilizer and the importance of such parameters and resulting reaction product from the standpoint of each and both effectiveness as a fertilizer of liquid nature, lack of sensitivity thereto of human skin and long-term stability thereof of the present invention. The broad limits of the Justice patent include employing urea and formaldehyde reactants in urea/formaldehyde ratio of 1/2, preferably 1.3/1.8, utilizing ammonia at a weight percentage of 0.3 to 6 broadly, preferably 0.7 to 3, at reaction temperatures ranging from 75 degrees Centigrade to boiling broadly, preferably from 85 to 95 degrees Centigrade, at a pH ranging broadly from 8.5 to 10, preferably pH 9 to 9.8, during a heating time of reaction broadly for 30 to 180 minutes, preferably from 75 to 115 minutes. While some of the parameters overlap, there has been no recognition by Justice nor other prior art of the critical parameters of Applicant/inventor and of the combination thereof critically necessary for the obtaining of the present invention, as shall be evidenced by some of Applicant's experiments contained herein as Examples of methods that do not work.